I teach physics labs and we have a final experimental exam which includes the same experiments done during the semester. I don't agree completely with this way of examining and wanted to see how other universities examine.

My exams for the labs where a mix of both. We where given problems, where we had to compute the numerical answer by applying the various theories we had learned. Then we would set up experiments based on the questions. I prefer this method as opposed to just replicating prior experiments.

We had a practical exam too. An earlier experiment had us examine elastic and inelastic collisions with known masses. The exam had us do the same thing but with unknown mass. I don't remember the details really since it was a long time ago.